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Shinobu Maehara
Shinobu Maehara is an extremely shy young girl, though she does develop more confidence as the story progresses. She is age 12 at the start of the story, and has short dark black hair (blue in the anime), with one strand of hair subtly sticking out. She first appears in episode 1 of the anime as a crying girl that Keitaro draws in his sketchbook. He draws her with a smile on her face, but when she sees this, Keitaro gets embarassed and runs away. She is later reintroduced in episode 2 where we learn that her parents are divorcing and she is expected to leave town with one of them. She chooses instead to become a resident at the Hinata House. In the manga she is already a resident at the apartments when Keitaro arrives there. She is in the seventh grade at school, but because of her shyness she does not know her fellow pupils well. In the anime even on the eve of her intended departure she hasn't told them she is leaving. Later on, she becomes more comfortable with her classmates and begins to make friends. She is increadibly skilled in the kitchen, possibly learned from her mother while working at the famiy restauraunt or she is simply naturally adept. She consistently downplays her abilities, but is pleased when her cooking is praised by the Hinata resident, especially when Keitaro says "My life would sure be a lot nicer if I could look forward to eating great food like this every day". She sometimes put clothes that are supposed to be washed in the pot, and food ingredients in the washing machine (called "wash curry"), although she has only been shown doing this twice. She develops a crush on Keitaro when he helps her with her studies, but feels betrayed by him when she learns he has misled her about being a Tokyo University student. Amends are made when Keitaro discovers her birthday is coming up, and the residents hold a surprise party. Her birthday is November 15, 1985. Shinobu was initially designed to not be cute, but the idea failed and her incredible non-cuteness instead made her cute in her own way. She handles alcohol very badly, she once accidentally drank Keitaro's white wine and instantly got drunk on merely half a glass. Appearance In the anime, she has short blue hair, whereas in the manga it is clearly depicted as being black. At one point in volume 9, she tells Keitaro of her desire to possibly dye her hair so as to make it "not so black". In the epilogue of volume 14, an older Shinobu is shown to have grown her hair past her shoulders. Plot Manga= In the manga, Shinobu is introduced in volume one as an emotionally frail junior high school girl living at the Hinata Apartments on account of her parents' troubled marriage. At the earliest stage, when Keitaro Urashima arrives at the Apartments, she is very quiet and extremely shy, but immediately has something of a crush on her new apartment manager after he tells her she's strong and that she can believe in herself. It develops into a full-fledged infatuation as the series progresses, and her confidence gradually builds until she eventually becomes openly jealous of his relationship with Naru Narusegawa by the final volume. In the epilogue in volume 14, set four years after the end of the series proper, a 19-year-old Shinobu has grown out her hair, become more mature and is now far from the shy girl she once was, but she still persists to crush on Keitaro even as he walks down the aisle with bride Naru. |-| Anime= The primary difference in Shinobu's character in the anime from the manga is, rather than being a Hinata House resident from the outset, she is initially seen crying quietly by Keitaro, who draws a flattering sketch of her that is misinterpreted as mocking when she accidentally sees it. She finds her way to the Apartments to return him his sketchbook, against the wishes of her mother, who initially forbids her from being there because of her view that it is filled with "immoral girls". Naru and Mitsune Konno cause a commotion over the book when they take a peek at some of the racier drawings inside, making Shinobu cry and run away. She eventually returns to the Apartments to escape the tension surrounding her parents' tumultuous divorce, and tells them that she wants to stay as the Hinata House cook to earn her keep. Shinobu in the anime also likes Keitaro from the start and her personality is much more mellow unlike manga. Character Design Shinobu was the character who changed the most during the Design stage, and her appearance was changed several times up until just before the first release. Her being in 7th grade, yet living alone and good at cooking was decided early on, but she was initially supposed to hate Keitaro up until around the middle of the series. She was also supposed to be very stingy and easily aggravated. Concept Gallery File:lh10_187e.jpg Parakelese_Shinobu_Art.png|Pararakelse art of Shinobu Shinobu Battle of Hinatasou Concept.png|Shinobu's Outfit from the Battle of Hinatasou Shinobu Concept.png|Early Concept Art of Shinobu File:ShinobuAnimeConcept.png LHAShinobuconcept.jpg LHAShinobuconcept2.jpg love_hina_again_01_booklet_02.jpg Gallery File:SweetPotato3.jpg 200177.jpg 225538.jpg loveh02.jpg Uniform2.jpg ShinobuAiwaKotobanoNakani.jpg Shinobu 3.jpg 19.jpg File:ShinobuManga1.png File:ShinobuManga2.png File:ShinobuManga3.png File:ValentinesGifting.png File:Shinobu'sRabbit1.jpg File:ShinobuNyamo.jpg Shinobu Maehara 19y.PNG|Shinobu Maehara 19 years old. NaruShinobu1.jpg 274547.jpg 269546.jpg 320711.jpg File:DVDCoverShinobu.jpg Lovehinancop001439.png Food.jpg File:lh2-97.jpg File:lh3-61.jpg File:lh9-117.jpg File:nbb.jpg File:OVASpring58.jpg File:Love_Hina_Again_Intro_9.png Other Appearances Negima! Magister Negi Magi *A high school rendition of Shinobu in her school uniform appeared on the inside of the dust cover of Negima! Magister Negi Magi #16 (published by Shonen Magazine Comics) along with Naru, Kaolla, Kitsune and Motoko. UQ Holder! *The character is a conceptual descendant of Shinobu's, bearing the same appearance, name and personality as Shinobu Maehara. Trivia *In the Manga (chapter 1), Naru says that Shinobu is 13 years old (despite she was only 12 at that time), but in Chapter 4, Keitaro says that Shinobu is in 9th grade, despite 9th graders are generally 14-15, so Shinobu should actually be in 7th grade at that time since she goes from 12 to 13 years old during that school year. *As noted in chapter 5, Shinobu’s height is 147cm, her BWH measurements are 68.52.72 *A hair strand on the right of her face was added in later manga volume. Category:Characters